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Thursday, 31 July 2014

Reporting to ParentsAll of the senior school children received their Mid Year reports last week.Today is the second afternoon of meetings about these reports and we thank you for coming along to discuss your child's engagement in learning and progress with our class teachers.Our junior children receive reports on the 6 month and 12 month anniversaries from when they turned 5 for their first 3 years at school. Junior school parents are also expected to meet with class teachers to connect and learn more about your child's progress and engagement socially and academically.We encourage you to contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns. When we come together, we have a greater chance of finding solutions than when we search on our own.This was also the message from a workshop I attended with Dr Brian Annan. You can learn more here http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/reflections-on-future-focused-learning.html or watch a short video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rebM4sO9C9E

Year 8 Catholic Cultural Leader Talent ShowYesterday, some of our senior school children shared their talents as part of a special show organised by our Catholic Cultural Leaders. Thanks to Tia, Ryan and Antonio who did an excellent job of organising the whole event. Thanks to Mr Cartlidge, Polly and Tia who were the judges.Here are some photos. Congratulations to Rhea Ratgali (1st), Utu and Sive (2nd) and Emily and Rhea (3rd).Thanks to all of the children who took part in this student organised event.

Welcome Miss SloanMany of you will remember Miss Sloan who taught at our school for 8 years. She has been teaching in England for the past 2 years and is back in New Zealand for a holiday before she heads back to the UK.The children were very excited to see her and learn about her teaching experiences in England.

Fale Pasifika

Last Friday many leaders from our community were invited to attend the Fale Pasifika Launch and Fale Pasifika Anti Bully presentation.It was an informative and well planned presentation organised by Beni Latavao who has been appointed as Project Worker in the Oamaru branch of the Fale Pasifika O Aoraki Trust. The aim of the trust is to work with Pasific people to make a difference in their lives. It is a charitable nonprofit organisation set up as a social service provider.

Here are some photos of the event. Well done to Utu Latavao who performed enthusiastically with the youth group.

Sir Peter Blake AwardCongratulations to Nicholas Plieger who received this special award

Sir Peter Blake believed in the incredible potential of young kiwis to achieve great things. He knew that inspiring leaders of any age could be found in every corner of New Zealand. Today, the Trust recognises these young leaders through an award for one promising student in every primary and intermediate school.

The Sir Peter Blake Young Leader Award, in association with Westpac, recognises young people who have shown promising leadership in their schools and communities. The award is made to one student in each primary and intermediate school selected by teachers and peers.

This year during Leadership Week, students are inspired to: Make it Happen!

By taking that first step on the journey, is the first step to achieving your dreams. We encourage students to stand tall and demonstrate their leadership with an initiative in school or in the community and Make it Happen! As Sir Peter showed all of us, there are leaders and there are dreamers. Leaders make things happen. Dreamers have a vision. The truly special people do both.

- See more at: http://www.sirpeterblaketrust.org/get-involved/blake-young-leader-award/#sthash.UCgVG7Lz.dpuf

Thank you to Colleen from Westpac who presented the award to Nicholas. He was nominated for being: An amazing altar server who helps to train the newbies and is always willing and keen to help out in the community. An outstanding role model during school and parish Holy week activities who always gives everything a goInvolved in sport and cultural activities and being unfailingly polite to members of our community and parish.Thanks Nicholas for showing us how to Reach for the Stars as Life Long Learners in the Catholic Faith.

On Friday 25 July, we had our first St Joseph's Whanau Group session. The children have been organised into groups of about 12 children each. Each group contains at least one child from every class in the school. Families are grouped together. We got together first thing in the morning for prayers prepared and led by the year 7s. Every child brought something to share which they had learnt about God during the second half of term 2.

These are some of the children's comments:

“I liked it.”

“Awesome because I learnt new things.”

“I liked it because I got to share with other people”.

"Kawakawa students came back very excited to have gone to a different classroom and meet new friends and share their learning in a different way. They were amazed to hear everyone had been learning what they had been learning about! Year 7’s and 8’s were wonderful role models."

(c) Home & School NewsDisco - The Home and School are organising a disco on Friday 5th September. More information to come out later.Quiz - A quiz night will be held on Thursday 18th September in the St Joseph's school hall. Tables will be $30 per team of 6 people. Can each family please donate either $10.00 or a prize for the quiz/raffles and leave it at the school office. More information will follow next week.

(d) Scholastic Book Club
Book orders close on Friday 8th August 2014.

(e) St Kevin's College Comment
Did you know? Your student can learn a lot about maths when you are baking. Skills include weighing, double numbers (for a big batch of kiwi scones) and using fine motor skills.

(f) Community Notices - Please check the community notice board for full information

Head lice are an unwelcome part of life, and are easily spread between people, particularly children. The key to managing head lice is early detection; look through your child's hair on a regular basis and nominate a certain night of the week so it becomes routine.

Use your fingers or a head lice comb, and look for little brown insects on the scalp. The eggs are almost invisible before they hatch, so by the time you spot the little white eggs on the hair shaft, they are already hatched.

Do not treat your child unless you see live lice.

The best treatment is thoroughly combing with a head lice comb and lots of conditioner in the hair. This should be done every 2nd day for 10 days. If you choose to use a head lice shampoo, you should still do the combing as described above. Shampoos do not kills eggs, and do not always kill all the live lice.

Do not use animal products on your child's scalp. They are harmful to humans.

A law change last year meant that all children under the age of 7 must now sit in a booster seat when travelling in a car. It is recommended that children stay in a booster seat until they reach a height of 148 cm, because adult restraints are usually unsafe for children below that height.

It is the responsibility of the driver that children under 7 are restrained appropriately in the car. If not, they must not be transported.

Thursday, 24 July 2014

Welcome back to a new term of engagement in deep learning for success for all of us.

We hope that you have all had a happy and restful holiday break.

Congratulations to Germany for winning the World Cup. We know one family at school who was very happy about this win!!We can now look forward to following the athlete's progress in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow over the next couple of weeks.

Parent Interviews and Reports Year 4-8

Please look out for your child’s Mid Year reports on Friday.
These reports share progress in relation to the National Standards for reading,
writing and mathematics. You need to book anappointment for a meeting with
your child’s teacher for either Tuesday 16th or Thursday 18th
July. Please book these online http://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/
Our school code is MNXX4. Contact the office if you need support to book an appointment.

Children in Year 1-3, receive their reports on the
anniversary of their time in the junior school and meetings are ongoing throughout the year.

Commenting on Blogs

Our staff and students are enthusiastically sharing their
learning on class blogs. Remember you can access all of these from the homepage
on our school website under the 'Learning' tab at the top of the page. http://st.josephs.school.nz/index.php

Some of you have been asking how to comment on you class or
child’s blog posts. Mannix Fraser in Year 7 has created a short video for you
to watch that explains this process for you. You can access this below or find
more details through this link to the Parents as Supporters part of my blog http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/p/parents_21.html

Sports Committee Code of Conduct

During the last couple of sports committee meetings we
drafted and finalised a new St Joseph’s Code of Conduct to ensure that we all
have a clear understanding about how sport works for all of us at school –
students, coachers, managers and parents and caregivers.

You can read the Code of Conduct on this link http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/p/parents_21.html
on the Parents as Supporters part of my blog. Please take the time to read and
reflect on what this means for you and your family. We will have hard copies of
the Code of Conduct available at the Parent Interviews next week for coaches,
managers and parents. The children will receive their own copies at school as
well.

Future Focused Learning

At St Joseph’s we are focused on engaging all learners into
deep learning for future success. We can’t predict what the work force will
look like when our young students finish school but we can prepare them to be
resilient, skilful and adaptive self-motivated learners, ready to lead the way.

Some of you will have already been into classrooms and
noticed that the rooms have been reorganised to accommodate the different
learning styles of our students. As teaching and learning becomes more
personalised and future focused, we offer flexibility within the environments
and spaces that our children are exposed to. Here is a photo of the
children engaged in learning in one of these flexible learning spaces. You can see more photos on our class blogs or on our school Facebook page

Kauri and Kawakawa’s Creation PresentationThank you to the junior classes for their beautiful presentation this morning. We look forward to sharing many more masses together as we Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith this term.

(a) Altar ServersSaturday 26th July - Elizabeth & Nicholas Plieger, Lachlan Brookes and Mackenzie CunninghamSunday 27th July - Rhea Ratgali, Tia Hunter, Joel Kunnethedan and Tyler Bolitho(b) Birthday Greetings to:Fritz Arsi, Cameron Pink, Daniel Gilbert and Bella Moriarty(c) Sacrament of the Eucharist MeetingA meeting for the parents of the children preparing to receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist will be held on Wednesday 30th July at 2.15 pm in Ruma Koru (school staffroom). A Timeline notice was sent home earlier in the week.(d) Bibles for New EntrantsDue to unforeseen circumstances, these bibles will be handed out at assembly next Friday and not tomorrow as stated in the last blog.(e) Found ScooterA Mongo scooter in Torridge Street has been found. Please contact the school office if it is yours.(f) School BankingThere will be no more school banking due to the very low number of families using this service.(g) St Kevin's College CommentDid you know? An important life skill for students is to be able to use money, including giving change and counting notes and coins. The ability to 'shop' involves important skills like asking for help and public speaking.(h) Community Notices - Please check the Community Notice board for full information

OSCAR Child Care are looking for a new Treasuer (honorarium paid) - July 24th 2014

Kids Snoring Research Study Invitation - July 24th 2014

St Kevin's College Home & School Art Auction - Saturday 2nd August at 6.30 pm

Friday, 4 July 2014

Thursday, 3 July 2014

This week's highlights 1.St Joe's X Factor 2. Thank You Jo Gilbert 3. Sabbatical Video1.St Joe's X FactorThere are certainly many very talented students at St Joseph's and they were all shining tonight during the senior musical. A huge thank you to Mr Cartlidge and all of our staff and parent helpers who contributed to the musical. A special thank you to our very own 'Old Spice' Girls for reuniting for a guest appearance.Thanks to the Home & School parents for providing the delicious food and drink as well.Thanks to our awesome audiences who supported the matinee and evening sessions so enthusiastically.Thanks to each and every one of our students who shared their God given talents so proudly.

2.Thank You JoA HUGE thank you to Jo Gilbert for the many hours of time given to taking care of our families and their uniform needs through our uniform shop. Jo has passed this role on to Adele Whiston and Kelly Bean. Thanks for your hard work with the uniform shop Jo.

3.Sabbatical Video

I am pleased to be able to share my own learning with you. I have turned my 6,000 word sabbatical essay into a 4 minute video ! Hope you enjoy it.

May I take this opportunity to thank absolutely everyone - students,staff, board members and families for your passion and enthusiasm for everything that we have achieved at St Joseph's this term. We already have much more planned for Term 3 and look forward to 'Reaching for the Stars as Lifelong Learners' with you all next term. Have a safe and happy term break. God Bless,Jenny Jackson

(a) Altar ServersSaturday 5th July - Elizabeth & Nicholas Plieger, Halalova Asi and Antonio Frances-ReesSunday 6th July - Antonia & Francesca Black, Cameron & Laura MatherSaturday 12th July - Joseph Spillane, Seth Sinclair, Ben Cullimore and Nicholas PliegerSunday 13th July - Joel Kunnethedan, Trish Chikowore, Jerome & Michael MisiloiSaturday 19th July - Elizabeth Plieger, Antonio Frances-Rees, Halalova Asi and Ben CullimoreSunday 20th July - Kelsey Mills, Emily Hayman and Abbey Mabon(b) Birthday Greetings to:Anthony Chen, Bronson Bartlett, Marianne Alegre, Abigail Jenkinson, Emily Hayman, Jack Souness, Niveek Wilson, Francesca Black, Utumalama Latavao, Eden Davison, Antonio Frances-Rees and Sivaenga Katoa, (c) St Joseph's Football Skill SessionsWill be held during the school holidays on Monday 7th July, Tuesday 8th July and Wednesday 9th July for St Joseph's players at St Joseph's. Primary and Junior players will be from 10.00 am till 11.00 am and Intermediate players from 10.00 am to 12.00 pm. The cost will be $1.00 per day for Primary and Junior players and $2.00 per day or $5.00 for all 3 days for Intermediate players. Please have with you suitable training gear and a drink bottle. Please let Mrs Souness know if you are interested.(d) Bibles for New EntrantsA bible will be handed out to children who have started in Ruma Kauri this year on Friday 25th July at assembly.(e) Uniform ShopThe Uniform Shop will be open on Mondays from 8.30 to 9.00 am and Thursday from 2.30 to 3.00 pm. Please note that the shop only sells second hand school uniforms and new uniforms can be purchased from the Warehouse and Camerons. They require more pinafores, long sleeved white shirts and ties. The PE sports uniform, school jackets and beanies can be purchased from the Uniform Shop.(f) EftposJust a reminder that the school does not have eftpos facilities and we accept cheques and cash.(g) St Kevin's College CommentDid you know? Students need to be able to do long multiplication by the time they get to High School.(h) Community Notices- please check the Community Notice board for full information

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

There are four key concepts we would like our children to develop and deepen as they move

From: Mojano.com

through our school:

1. Knowing that God loves us.
2. Understanding that we know about God through the Bible, through His Creation and through our personal relationship through prayer.
3. Images of what God is like - e.g. Father, Creator, everywhere, all powerful etc.
4. Understanding of God as the Creator

These four concepts will be the context of the God strand teaching throughout the school. We teach the learning outcomes for the Religious Education curriculum at each year level in the context of these four concepts.